Knowledge Bank

A investment foundation that supports projects that help the built environment. It focuses on projects that improve quality of life through the building of public spaces. Their methodology is based on communication and research and operates through a grant making and investment strategy. They aim at maximizing the balance of returns on equity while still funding the development of built environment with a direct benefit of common good.

www.realdania.dk

A partnership between Burnley Borough Council, artist team Co Lab Project and Civic Architects to develop public art proposals for a Housing Market Renewal scheme. This scheme is tackling the housing market failure in the Northwest of England and used participatory community engagement to inform their proposals. The piece Peer Plaques are several commemorative plaques been spread-out around the area with quotes from the local inhabitant’s answers to the question"What is your first thought when you think about your neighborhood?"

www.co-lab.org/commissions

Sit Down! was a regeneration project in a multicultural district of Copenhagen. It was financed by the City of Copenhagen and Realdania – a foundation that supports projects in the built environment. Six temporary interventions were delivered by artist collective Publik that engaged the local community in the improvement of the area.

This is an artist lead participatory project initiated by the Aberdeenshire Council to regenerate the remote town of Peterhead in Scotland.  The artists Sans Façon worked with DEF Landscapes initiatives to create a regeneration plan for the town. Through organising a conference, creating a history map and curating 3 artistic interventions in the town, Sans Façon generated engagement form the local inhabitants in the visioning of the future of the location.

www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk

Rural Studios is an alternative academic centre that also holds exhibits, building projects and research programmes from both Auburn and international students. Their mission is to enable students to use their skills in the building of their environment through participation and human contact. Rural studios promotes educative schemes that influence individuals to become overall political, social and environmentally engaged citizens.  

This architectural firm works for opening the notion of quality architecture by taking into account social equality and environmental awareness. They promote sustainable building design using dialectic strategies –through research, writing and speech. Their projects are inspired by natural living systems and aim at creating an organic relationship between human and natural environments. Some of their projects include the Make it Right Project, and the Rugby Radio Towers in Warwickshire.

The Make it Right Project was initiated in December 2006 by Brad Pitt. The project’s goal was to build green affordable housing on a large scale to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. Pitt spent time with architects, community leaders and displaced residents to come up with ideas about how to develop ecological housing and at the same time have creative designs that would connect the community with their new environments. The Pink Project - also part of this initiative- is an ambitious commemorative installation that is used as a communication tool to raise awareness about the crisis. It is essentially a work in progress involving collaborative building in which anyone can participate. The Make it Right Project employs decision making through community involvement but more importantly aims at steering social and ecological change creatively.

www.makeitrightnola.org